Arlington, Va. — An upcoming feature story in Trout magazine details media mogul Ted Turner’s work to restore native cutthroat populations on his properties in Montana and New Mexico.

While Turner’s work to reintroduce the American bison has received lots of attention, it was trout fishing that originally brought him to the West.

“In the beginning, when I first came to the West, my objective was simply to have a few recreational retreats where I could catch some fish,” Turner tells Trout. “But the more that you become familiar with the land at river level and contemplate all of the things that go into creating a healthy trout stream, your thinking naturally expands. Then it’s your choice to act on it, or not.”

Written by Bozeman, Mont. journalist Todd Wilkinson, the piece examines Turner’s landscape-sized approach to restoring populations of fragile westslope and Rio Grande cutthroat. Both fish are listed under the Endangered Species Act. Trout Unlimited (TU) has worked closely with Turner and his staff on both the Montana and New Mexico fish introductions.

Turner’s efforts on his Montana ranch alone to restore westslope cutthroat in Cherry Creek has resulted in the largest refugia for westslopes in the Upper Missouri Basin and a new reservoir of fish that can be used to anchor other reintroductions. In total, the 65-stream-mile Cherry Creek system will yield a tenfold increase in westslope habitat. Bruce Farling, director of TU’s Montana State Council, calls the scale of that effort “unprecedented.”

Turner, who is a long-time TU member, tells Trout that his work to restore native trout populations is linked to his efforts to reduce the spread of nuclear weapons in that trout are a reminder of what humans are saving the world for.

“I’m trying to do the exact opposite with westslope cutthroats than what we’re trying to achieve with nukes. I’m anti-proliferation with bombs. I’m pro-proliferation with native trout. If we all think big and work together, we can accomplish anything,” Turner says.

Trout Unlimited (www.tu.org) is a non-profit organization with more 140,000 members nationwide who are dedicated to conserving, protecting and restoring North America’s trout and salmon fisheries and their watersheds.